Post Efan upgrade

rwfnetworking · Aug 12, 2024

History
- 2012 Ram 1500 5.7l
- Compcams Stage 2 camshaft, lifters and head springs.
- Custom tuned

While I was at it, I upgraded to an electric fan. Removed the condenser fan, shroud.

Now it seems my truck will slowly overheat (220+) when the AC is on. Checking surface temperatures inside they will be around 180 degrees. With no AC on, the surface temperatures are about 140. These temps are measured directly under the hood along the fender well.

Now, if I leave the hood open everything runs normally.

All this is at idle.

Driving around with minimal stops at lights it seems to stay cooled.

Seems to me that heat is getting trapped in the hood area.

Thoughts or suggestions are welcome

Robert

Burla · Aug 12, 2024

The fan is running non stop at 220f? Some guys went to e fan only to go back. But I'd rule out air in the system. Drop a 180 t stat in?

@Hemi395 ?

Hemi395 · Aug 12, 2024

Sounds lime you have either air in the system or possibly a defective thermostat. Did you replace that when you were in there doing lifters?

The fan should be on when the ac is on and it drop the coolant temp quick...

Also what are you fan settings in your custom tune?

Maybe try reverse flushing the fins out from the engine bay out, you would be surprised how much debris will comes out and how much more airflow goes thru the radiator/ac condenser.

Wild one · Aug 12, 2024

rwfnetworking said:
History
- 2012 Ram 1500 5.7l
- Compcams Stage 2 camshaft, lifters and head springs.
- Custom tuned

While I was at it, I upgraded to an electric fan. Removed the condenser fan, shroud.

Now it seems my truck will slowly overheat (220+) when the AC is on. Checking surface temperatures inside they will be around 180 degrees. With no AC on, the surface temperatures are about 140. These temps are measured directly under the hood along the fender well.

Now, if I leave the hood open everything runs normally.

All this is at idle.

Driving around with minimal stops at lights it seems to stay cooled.

Seems to me that heat is getting trapped in the hood area.

Thoughts or suggestions are welcome

Robert

If it didn't overheat with the mechanical fan /shroud and stock e-fan,wouldn't common sense tell you to put them back on :Big Laugh:

rwfnetworking · Aug 12, 2024

Burla said:
The fan is running non stop at 220f? Some guys went to e fan only to go back. But I'd rule out air in the system. Drop a 180 t stat in?

@Hemi395 ?

Yes, the fan is running non stop at 220 as one might expect. And of curse the AC is on so it running anyways.

I had a 180 in it after the upgrade, but swapped it back out for the stock one as it was causing overheat with no AC on. Probably just a bad aftermarket thermostat. I might try that again with a better brand and see if things improve.

rwfnetworking · Aug 12, 2024

Wild one said:
If it didn't overheat with the mechanical fan /shroud and stock e-fan,wouldn't common sense tell you to put them back on

Yea, that had crossed my mind, but I really like having the extra room to do any repairs...ie water pump, serpentine belt...One might also wonder why the GM Engineers decided on a cooling system that needed two fans in the first place? Maybe a better radiator would been a better design?

rwfnetworking · Aug 12, 2024

Hemi395 said:
Sounds lime you have either air in the system or possibly a defective thermostat. Did you replace that when you were in there doing lifters?

The fan should be on when the ac is on and it drop the coolant temp quick...

Also what are you fan settings in your custom tune?

Maybe try reverse flushing the fins out from the engine bay out, you would be surprised how much debris will comes out and how much more airflow goes thru the radiator/ac condenser.

No trapped air, I burped this more than once. The new thermostat I have is OEM so I think is doing ok.

Tune has fan turning on at 199 high speed.

The fan turns on immediately when the AC is turned on

I had the radiator out a couple of weeks ago and replaced the AC condenser, hoping it was causing issues. Radiator was fresh water flushed.

rwfnetworking · Aug 12, 2024

Thanks for all your replies everyone. I had a seasoned mechanic look at it and he agrees with my original assessment that there seems like there is a hot air that is getting trapped up around the hood. Possibly from a shorter shroud. He also feels the efam might not have enough volume. I may be going back to the original setup, but I might also try removing the decorative air scoop inserts and see if that helps.

Bigskyroadglide · Aug 12, 2024

Op,

The removal of the decorative air scoops will not flow a bunch of air into the engine bay, unless you running high speed.

Its my opinion you still have air in the system and/or your thermostat continues to be suspect. Or both.

I'm running the efan only on my 14 RT, with a supercharger and daily drive it in traffic. My temp rarely exceeds 195 with a 190 thermostat, I run the air conditioning full time and consistently drive the truck about 600 miles a week. Im tuned by FRP and show a very consistent AFR unless im running hard.

Instead of looking for exotic solutions, I'd do the simple stuff first. I doubt Ram designed the engine bay to trap hot air. If that's the case, every truck that has performed the efan conversion would experience the same overheating. They don't.

@Wild one gave you great advice, if it was not overheating before the conversion put the manual fan back on, if it still overheats, it's not the efan, if it fixes the problem then you have found the solution.

My thoughts.

PS. I've got 4 5.7 hemis 3 out of 4 have the efan conversion and none of them overheat!

turkeybird56 · Aug 12, 2024

I cannot attest to a swap from mechanical to EFAN, as I have a 5th Gen 5.7L with the 850 Watt EFAN. Now, there were issues with the built in resistors to the original fan on the truck, and I had the FAN replaced under warranty. IT JUST TOOK 2 years fighting with Max Care warranty folks, to get it finally approved, even tho it was diagnosed in Feb 2022 by my dealership, which is after my bought Max Care Warranty kicked in, and re-affirmed by another dealership in Feb 2023. The usual fight with Warranty stuff, but did get replaced finally and temps are not as crazy. Just FTR: the 5th Gens run a 203 F thermostat, and the EFAN will kick on usually when AC turned on and always when MAX cool turned on.

crackerjack1957 · Aug 12, 2024

How old is the water pump???
Which E-fan you get???
Maybe upload a photo of E-fan on radiator.

Overheating

One of the common signs of bad water pump functionality is overheating. The pump may not leak coolant, but the pump mechanism itself may have failed. Over time the fins of the pump can actually wear down to the point where they are no longer moving coolant. Cavitation can eat away at the metal pump vanes and pump surfaces. Plastic water pump vanes can disintegrate over time as the plastic ages. This all adds up to coolant that is no longer moved through the engine block and into the radiator to be cooled, leading to overheating.

turkeybird56 · Aug 12, 2024

crackerjack1957 said:
How old is the water pump???
Which E-fan you get???
Maybe upload a photo of E-fan on radiator.

Overheating
One of the common signs of bad water pump functionality is overheating. The pump may not leak coolant, but the pump mechanism itself may have failed. Over time the fins of the pump can actually wear down to the point where they are no longer moving coolant. Cavitation can eat away at the metal pump vanes and pump surfaces. Plastic water pump vanes can disintegrate over time as the plastic ages. This all adds up to coolant that is no longer moved through the engine block and into the radiator to be cooled, leading to overheating.

hmmmmmm, dat could be a possibility too, U neva know, but getting reliable replacement parts a mf. The EFAN that OP got could have been bad too.

Wild one · Aug 12, 2024

rwfnetworking said:
Thanks for all your replies everyone. I had a seasoned mechanic look at it and he agrees with my original assessment that there seems like there is a hot air that is getting trapped up around the hood. Possibly from a shorter shroud. He also feels the efam might not have enough volume. I may be going back to the original setup, but I might also try removing the decorative air scoop inserts and see if that helps.

View attachment 548547

What grill do you have,the sport grills are more airflow restricted then the wide open honeycomb grills are. Post a pic of your grill.

rwfnetworking · Aug 12, 2024

Bigskyroadglide said:
Op,

The removal of the decorative air scoops will not flow a bunch of air into the engine bay, unless you running high speed.

Removing the decorative air scoop inserts would allow heat to escape.

Bigskyroadglide said:
Its my opinion you still have air in the system and/or your thermostat continues to be suspect. Or both.

If this were the case, wouldn't it be overheating with the AC off? Btw, the thermostat is about a month old.

Bigskyroadglide said:
I'm running the efan only on my 14 RT, with a supercharger and daily drive it in traffic. My temp rarely exceeds 195 with a 190 thermostat, I run the air conditioning full time and consistently drive the truck about 600 miles a week. Im tuned by FRP and show a very consistent AFR unless im running hard.

Bigskyroadglide said:
Instead of looking for exotic solutions, I'd do the simple stuff first. I doubt Ram designed the engine bay to trap hot air. If that's the case, every truck that has performed the efan conversion would experience the same overheating. They don't.

No, they didn't design this to trap hot air, but they also never intended to run a single fan with no shroud, but that's what's being done. When I let it idle with the AC on, it will get to about 230 in 30-45 minutes. At that point I will raise the hood and temps will stabilize to around 205.

Bigskyroadglide said:
@Wild one gave you great advice, if it was not overheating before the conversion put the manual fan back on, if it still overheats, it's not the efan, if it fixes the problem then you have found the solution.

My thoughts.

PS. I've got 4 5.7 hemis 3 out of 4 have the efan conversion and none of them overheat!

rwfnetworking · Aug 12, 2024

crackerjack1957 said:
How old is the water pump???
Which E-fan you get???
Maybe upload a photo of E-fan on radiator.

Overheating
One of the common signs of bad water pump functionality is overheating. The pump may not leak coolant, but the pump mechanism itself may have failed. Over time the fins of the pump can actually wear down to the point where they are no longer moving coolant. Cavitation can eat away at the metal pump vanes and pump surfaces. Plastic water pump vanes can disintegrate over time as the plastic ages. This all adds up to coolant that is no longer moved through the engine block and into the radiator to be cooled, leading to overheating.

Waterpump was replaced when I did my cam and lifter replacement about 6 months ago. Fan bought was a Dorman 621-410. I'll have to check on the Waterpump and see where it was bought.

rwfnetworking · Aug 12, 2024

Wild one said:
What grill do you have,the sport grills are more airflow restricted then the wide open honeycomb grills are. Post a pic of your grill.

Oem grill with horizontal structures

rwfnetworking · Aug 12, 2024

Here are some pics of the grill and efan.

Wild one · Aug 12, 2024

rwfnetworking said:
Here are some pics of the grill and efan.

See if you can hunt up the honey comb inserts for your grill. They might be the differance you need.If you look at your grill real close,you'll see it's a fair restriction to airflow
You want this style grill insert if you can find it,the poverty trucks have them,lol.

pacofortacos · Aug 12, 2024

I run the stock efan without the mechanical fan and don't have any overheating issues - stock stat.

Your grille is air restricted and can cause the engine to run hot, I ran into that when I used that grille. Towing at 70 mph on a 95 degree decent humidity day, the temp would run at about 210 -215 w/ac on. Same conditions but at idle in traffic, my temp rose to the low 220's, I had to shut the AC off for it to cool down that time.
IF the temp dropped below 92 deg. or so the issue went away, the amount of air the grille allows through is that borderline.

Honey comb flows a LOT more air as Wildone said - I have a honeycomb grille but am keeping it just in case something would happen to my 2018 Sport grille.

I also have a set of the inserts like you have that have been modified for more air flow and that helped - ie. cut some of the restriction away.

pacofortacos · Aug 12, 2024

Also what is your antifreeze to water ratio? To much antifreeze and not enough water can limit the amount of heat that the system can absorb and discard.

Not sure on the Dorman fan, a few have failed.

I have tried the stock mopar V6 and stock efan w/stock shroud and honestly there's not a big difference in the cooling capacity between the 2 IMO.
Stock mopar V6 fan is sitting out in the garage

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